Friends?
by skimmingsurfaces
Summary: "Is the subject B.R.A.I.N. ready for complete immersion?" A voice penetrated the darkness from above him.  He recognized his name, or what he had assumed to be his name for all this time, and frowned. "Initiating gene splicer." Baby!PatB, an origin fic
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

_Snowball!_

Brain shivered in the dark, moist enclosure he found himself in. It was small and the stench of human permeated his senses, adding to the vertigo his dizzying panic that had his head in a whirl. His trembled, the tiny mouse was not often removed from his cage, except in the case of experiments. But in those cases, the scientists merely grabbed him by the tail and he was able to see where he was going. The only other time he'd been completely at a loss as to where he was being taken was when he'd first been grabbed by scientists out in the field, the last time he saw his parents.

_I don't want this to be the last time I see Snowball, too! _ Brain shivered, despite the warmth surrounding him. It was stifling. _He's my best friend!_

The hamster and mouse duo had been playing happily together, their favorite game of chase and tackle. A simple game for simple rodents. It was Brain's turn to be 'it', so to speak, when the cage had been opened and the little mouse scooped up and away. The last thing he saw before the darkness was Snowball's worried face, staring up at him as he was whisked away.

"Is the subject B.R.A.I.N. ready for complete immersion?" A voice penetrated the darkness from above him. He recognized his name, or what he had assumed to be his name for all this time, and frowned. Was this just another experiment? Why didn't Snowball get to come too?

"Yes." White light blinded the mouse momentarily, he blinked rapidly as his eyes welled up. "Initiating gene splicer."

Without any time to figure out exactly where he was, Brain was strapped to a conveyor belt. A pair of scientists loomed over him, their features blurry as his eyes still watered from the onslaught of light. The belt began to move him backwards, away from the humans. He was partially relieved and partially terrified; while he was getting away from one danger, he was approaching another. _I wish Snowball was here… he'd know what to do… he wouldn't be afraid… _Brain's tail twitched anxiously. He entered a chamber, strange wires and gears buzzed inside it.

"Commence splicing."

Brain looked up, a bolt of electricity shot down at him.

Then there was nothing.

#

"Neurotransmitters are firing. Brain waves appear normal. He's regaining consciousness."

_My head… ow…_

"The frontal lobe is showing increased activity, but nothing stable. There's no pattern in the electrochemical current."

_It feels like it exploded… no, that's not possible, I wouldn't be thinking if my head exploded._

"Should we put the subject B.R.A.I.N. in with the others? Was it not a success?"

_B.R.A.I.N.? That's my name but… no, it's a body part. An organ. I think it's what's hurting right now._

"Doesn't look like it. We'll keep him under observation as he grows more lucid. See if any anomalies occur. Go ahead and put him back."

A pair of tired, pink eyes opened at this. Brain's ears perked up as well as he took in what the humans were saying. His head throbbed and felt strangely heavy. A scientist cradled him in the palm of his hand before taking him through a corridor. They entered a strange room, one that the little mouse had never seen before. On either side of the room there were identical cages, huge and filled with other white mice.

The pounding in Brain's head lessened. He peeked over the human's hands, this wasn't his cage. Who were all those mice? And where was Snowball? Agitation swelled up inside him until he felt like he'd burst if he didn't relieve this tension. So he bit down on the lab technician's fingers. Hard.

"Ow! Little sucker!" The man hissed, hurriedly placing Brain in one of the cages. "Need to keep an eye on his temperament…"

Brain glared at the scientist over his shoulder as the cage door clicked shut.

"Look, guys, a newcomer."

His ears twitched in the direction of the sound, little Brain turned his attention towards a group of other white, lab mice all huddled around a food dish. They observed him with calculating looks in their pink eyes, awareness filled them. Brain realized, as his own gaze roved over them, that he was studying them just as carefully. His fur bristled, his nose twitched, yet he straightened his back in an attempt not to appear hostile.

"Where am I?" He asked, although it came out more like a demand. "And who are you?"

"Easy, small fry," the mouse closest to Brain answered, "no need to be all huffy with us." Brain already disliked this mouse. "You're one of the Project B.R.A.I.N. mice. We all are. And this is where we live. Welcome to the club."

The tiny mouse's brow furrowed. "I don't understand. I'm the only B.R.A.I.N. mouse."

Another mouse snorted. "Yeah, right. You thought they'd just do this test on one mouse? Try 28."

"Test?" Brain's wracked his memory for any mentions of a test, but his head still ached.

The first mouse stepped up again. "Yeah, you know that chamber you went through? That was the ACME Gene Splicer/Bagel Warmer. It scrambled your genetic make-up to see if anything would happen. We all went through it. They're trying to improve our intelligence, hence the name Project B.R.A.I.N."

All the information was immediately soaked up into his brain at a much faster rate than he was used to. He reached up a paw to rub at his forehead, startled to find that it wasn't the same as it had been before. It was slightly larger, not by much, but enough for him to take notice. He looked at the other mice, there were about twelve in his line of sight, some seemed to have larger than average heads while others appeared more normal.

"So what's your name, short stuff? I'm Dash." The really talkative mouse pointed to himself then gestured to the other mouse who had spoken. "This here's Pellet. I'd introduce the rest of the gang, but don't want to overwhelm you, I remember what a pain it is after you first come out of that machine. The world's like a whole new place."

Brain bristled again at the mention of his size, the other mice weren't that much bigger than him, save Dash himself, but he seemed abnormally large for their age (providing he was the same age as the rest of the young mice). Letting it go for now, even instincts told him it wouldn't be in his best interest if he angered the hosts of this cage, he nodded and said: "I'm the Brain."

"The Brain?" Pellet sneered. "Someone thinks a lot of himself."

"It's what I've always been called." Brain defended with a little white lie. It was, after all, what he always heard the scientists call him and what Snowball called him. He couldn't remember what his parents had named him, his only real recollection of them was the day he was taken and whispers of feelings he felt around them, like safety and comfort. "Mock it if you must, but at least it's something I can be proud of rather than something I'd like to eat."

Several of the mouse snickered while Pellet huffed, effectively shut up for the time being.

Dash grinned. "We like intelligent mice, nothing wrong with a name that boasts of intelligence, Pellet. And speaking of eating, you must be starved. Come have some dinner, Brain, there's plenty."

Placated by the offer of food, Brain stood up and began to approach them on all fours. He just reached the food dish when one of the other mice groaned.

"Oh great. Look who decided to stop trying to communicate with the lint ball."

The group of mice grumbled as a whole, the smallest mouse looking around in confusion. All their heads turned towards the opposite corner of the cage, near the exercise wheel, so Brain followed suit. Another mouse was watching them, a big, dopey smile on his face.

"Is he seriously trying to eat with us again?"

"When will the guy learn?"

"Never. He doesn't have a brain to learn with."

"Dummy."

"Moron."

"Freak."

Brain blinked in astonishment at the obvious alienation of this mouse. So far he had done nothing but slowly approach them, only to stop and duck his head when he saw them staring at him. He pawed at the floor of the cage, his tail flitting back and forth.

Dash sighed and addressed him. "We told you that you can't eat with us."

"I know, but I'm hungry. And Doris is hungry too." The little mouse chirped.

The mice all started laughing. Brain could tell from the tone that they were mocking the other mouse, who seemed to think it was happy laughter because he started laughing along with them, and tapped the mouse next to him, one named Cedar, on the shoulder.

"Who is he? And why can't he eat? Dash just said there was plenty of food." Brain inquired.

Cedar smirked. "Just wait, you'll see."

Brain glanced back at Dash, who was shaking his head. "Oh? Really? Doris is hungry? Well, we don't want Doris to go hungry, do we guys?" The mice collectively shook their heads.

The mouse's smile grew wider, if that were even possible. "Thanks! NARF!" Brain started as a hiccup of sorts wracked the mouse's body as that unintelligible word flew from his mouth. "I'll go tell her it's okay!"

"Yeah you do that." Pellet chuckled.

The dopey little mouse ducked down and pulled something out from under the wood chips lining the floor of their cage. A shiny yellow button was clutched in his paw as he padded over to the group of mice and the food chips on his hind legs.

Dash reached out. "Give her here, I'll give her some of my food pellets."

"Zort!" Another tick shuddered through his body. "Thanks!"

He handed over the button. Brain arched an eyebrow as he realized Doris was the button. He stared at the mouse in disbelief, he honestly didn't think the button was alive, did he?

Dash spun the button in his paws, testing the weight. He tucked his elbows in, flexed his fingers, then tossed the button out of the cage as if it were a Frisbee and watched it sail across the lab until it disappeared under a desk. The mice all erupted in a cheer, shaking Dash's paw and slapping him on the back. Brain rolled his eyes, this seemed a bit excessive for simply tossing a button, but then he saw the outcast mouse in the corner of his eye.

He was staring wide-eyed at the place where the button vanished. His mouth gaping open and his ears flattened against his head. His tail drooped like a wilted flower and his shoulders sagged. He didn't seem to register the cheering at first, but once he did he wrung his front paws together in a very human gesture and bit down on his lower lip with a pair of large, buckteeth.

"But, you said you were going to give her food pellets." He whimpered. "Poit. You did, I heard you."

The mice just kept laughing, no one bothering to answer or give an explanation to the mouse. Sniffling, he shuffled away back to the corner of the cage by the exercise wheel and a cardboard tube. Brain frowned, turning to look at all the other mice as they calmed down.

"Oh man, that was good." Pellet sighed happily.

Cedar nodded. "That'll keep him out of our hair for the rest of tonight. But you know come tomorrow he's going to have some new friend like a peanut shell or a staple."

"I know, that makes it more fun for us."

They all resumed eating except for Brain. He'd lost his appetite.

* * *

><p>Long AN is loooooong.

This was my first PatB chapter fic, if we go chronologically through uploads on DeviantArt (I'm cutcrescentheart on there if anyone hops between both)

I decided to try my hand at an 'origin' story of sorts for Pinky and the Brain. It takes a little from the show, but since there are two different episodes on how Brain was spliced (once with Snowball and once with Pinky) I'm doing my own little spin-off on how Brain gained his intelligence, lost Snowball as a friend, and gained Pinky as one.

So, now to clear up any questions. The gene splicing did work, but like in the show, I'm keeping it so that the scientists have no idea that it worked. They're looking for immediate results, and while Brain's mental capacity has increased, instant knowledge isn't just going to appear. He has to do all the hard work on his own.

Those other mice are jerks! Poor Doris!

I know that Pinky is generally well-liked by everyone in the show and Brain is the one looked down upon, but kids can be bullies to those who are different. Since all these mice went through the same experiment and came out similar, they've banded together to keep out the "weirdo". As of right now they see that Brain is more like them, so they accept him. But little do they know that their future dictator has arrived!

And in Project B.R.A.I.N. I believe Brain just latches onto the acronym as his name, essentially the same thing was done here, but as a child who just misunderstood.  
>All the other mice children either remember the names their parents gave them or came up with their own names.<p>

I hope this was enjoyable so far ^^ Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Hey, Dash?" Brain approached the self-appointed leader of their cage—although he refused to see the larger mouse as such, he was just aware that if you had a question, this was the mouse to go to.

"What's up, tiny?" He was currently lounging by the water bottle with two other mice, Albino and Rex.

Brain's ear twitched, but he pushed down his annoyance. "Do you know if they use hamsters in Project B.R.A.I.N.?"

He missed Snowball. It was lonely without his best friend despite being surrounded by other mice. None of them ever played, although Brain knew why. With his new improved intellect, even he was embarrassed by the fact that he'd ever thought rolling around the cage was fun. While he was not willing to subjugate himself to that kind of humiliation, he did want to see his hamster friend again, make sure he was alright and everything. Maybe play a little bit. In secret.

Dash snorted. "Hamsters? Those stupid creatures can't even run mazes properly, they're nowhere near worthy of being used for an experiment of this caliber. All they care about is stuffing their faces with food."

Brain's eyes narrowed, while Snowball did like to see how many food pellets he could shove in his cheeks, he did it more for entertainment value than anything. "That's not true, hamsters aren't less intelligent. My friend from my old cage is a hamster, and he-"

"Oh, Brain, I'm so sorry for you. Being forced to share a cage with something like that. Good thing they got you out when they did, or you might've ended up like that." Dash pointed towards the ostracized, bucktoothed mouse, who was currently chasing his tail in circles. "Sad, isn't it?"

Brain gave up, nodded and left the three mice to begin their teasing anew. While it was only his third day in the cage, he quickly caught on to the main source of entertainment for these mice: making fun of the idiot. No matter what conversation had been struck up, it somehow always led back to cracking jokes at the other's expense. The lack of common sense and critical thinking skills alarmed Brain at first, yes, but he didn't see the point of purposely going out of their way to laugh at him behind his back. When they weren't taunting him, they were ignoring him. Turning their backs on him collectively until he got the picture, which unfortunately took some time.

Still wobbly on his hind legs, Brain ventured over to the edge of the cage. A lab tech left a biology book on the table earlier that day, so upon fashioning a reaching device from a paperclip and a pencil, Brain was able to turn the pages and read to his heart's content. The amount of knowledge his new brain was capable of was amazing. There were so many interesting things to learn, his mind buzzed as he processed and categorized and stored every new bit of information. He'd even learned to read in a day, just from looking around the lab and listening when the scientists read things aloud or wrote down what they were saying.

Brain tried writing, but the pencil was too big for his small arms, the letters came out squiggly and not uniform. So he contented himself with just reading for now. It was certainly more enjoyable than listening to the other mice talk about how much smarter they were compared to the dopey mouse, after all, they paled in comparison to him. His name was fitting of his superior cranial capacity.

As he delved into Mendelian genetics, he sensed a presence behind him. Brain glanced over his shoulder, surprised to see a pair of buckteeth first, then the rest of the mouse. He had his arms behind his back, watching Brain shyly as his tail swished back and forth.

He perked up when his gaze met Brain's. Bright blue eyes. Brain pondered, he hadn't noticed until now the mouse's abnormal eye color.

"Hi!" Blue eyes beamed at him, looking much too happy.

Brain decided to humor him. "Hello."

"Have you seen Joe? I can't find him anywhere. Narf." He spasmed for a moment while glancing around the cage before looking back at him.

"Joe" was his newest friend, a piece of string. Brain didn't have the heart to tell him that Joe had been used to floss Cedar's teeth after breakfast that morning.

"No, sorry, I haven't." He replied quickly, going back to his reading and hoping the other mouse would leave him alone. He couldn't explain it, but he always felt guilty when around this mouse, despite that he had yet to be mean to him. "I'll keep an eye out for him though."

"Oh, okay. Poit." He heard the mouse sigh behind him, but he didn't leave. "What are you doing?"

"Reading." Brain told him in a clipped tone, he really wanted to get back to genetics. Maybe it had some light to shed on the mystery behind his gene splicing.

A large, red nose appeared in Brain's peripheral vision as the other mouse leaned in closer to see. "What's that?"

"Biology."

Blue eyes blinked uncomprehendingly.

Brain sighed. "It's the study of living organisms." Still nothing. "It's like the building blocks of life-"

"Oh! I like playing with blocks!" The tail wagging began anew. "Can I play too?"

"I'm not playing with them right now. I'm learning about them." He clarified, hoping it got through his thick skull.

The other mouse wrinkled his nose. "But blocks are supposed to be played with. Narf."

"These are different kinds of blocks." Brain looked around for a way out of this conversation without having to leave him book. "Hey, I think Pellet knows where Joe is."

"Oh, goody!" He clapped his paws together. "Thanks ah… uhh… mmm… what's your name?"

"The Brain." He spoke testily, fervently hoping he'd go away.

"Nice to meet you, The Brain!" He giggled, holding a paw out for him to shake. Brain relented and shook paws for a brief second before reclaiming his arm. The other mouse paid no mind and turned to scamper off. "Thanks, Brain!"

Suddenly, it clicked that he'd not once heard anyone call him by name. "Wait. What's your name?"

The other mouse stopped, his eyes wide in surprise. "My name? Poit. I don't have one."

With that he skipped away, leaving Brain alone with his book and the guilty feeling in his stomach.

#

The Nameless mouse's eye color befuddled Brain. According to his textbook, mice that were white were albino and normally had pinkish red eyes. Sometimes, if bred a certain way, one could get a mouse with black eyes, but there was nothing about blue eyes on a white lab mouse. He was curious about the parentage of the dopey mouse. His mind furiously thought up hypotheses and solutions as to how a trait like that could occur in mice seemingly devoid of pigments.

He spent a lot of time pondering it, then became flustered and embarrassed that he was spending so much thought and time on the idiot's eye color. While it was a mystery, there were certainly other books to read and facts to learn. He'd finished the Biology text and moved on to start on Chemistry. Two chapters in, he decided it was probably better if he learned Arithmetic first.

Before he could get a hold of a math book though, the lab closed for the day and all the lights were shut off. He sighed, but figured he should let his mind rest for the day anyway. He could resume his quest for knowledge in the morning.

Joining the other mice for dinner, Brain tried very hard not to think about the mouse in the corner hiding in his cardboard tube. After dinner, they all curled up in their sleeping area for the night, barking out orders at the blue eyed mouse to keep quiet as he nibbled on the leftover food pellets.

They all slept in a group, little furry bodies huddled together for warmth. Despite being genetically altered, they were still baby mice who inwardly desired the comfort of their mothers. Brain jerked out of his half-asleep state as that term came to him. Genetically altered. Perhaps in addition to splicing his genes, they also added the blue color to his eyes. Just how they managed to do it after he was born escaped Brain, but he was sure he was onto something.

Suddenly he heard a growl followed by a whimper. Cracking one pink eye open, Brain saw that it was Pellet and the blue eyed mouse. Blue eyes had been trying to squeeze into the group, obviously desperate for some comfort as well, but Pellet was having any of it, baring his teeth and narrowing his eyes. The other mouse lowered his ears and slunk away, back to his cardboard tube most likely.

Even though all was quiet once Pellet lay back down, Brain couldn't fall asleep for a long time after that.

* * *

><p>AN:

So, here are the other mice in the cage that we've met so far:

Dash (self-proclaimed leader)  
>Pellet<br>Cedar  
>Rex<br>Albino

There are about ten more, though not all of them will be named. They're mostly to represent group mentality and how easily swayed they can be under Dash's leadership. It bothers Brain, he doesn't know that he wants to take over the world yet, but he already knows he hates having to listen to an authority figure. He'd rather be the one in charge.

Since Brain is so against being another mindless follower, he doesn't latch on to the same view they all have of Pinky. He'd rather form his own opinion. Right now he's in a strange developmental stage, he's in between how he was as a child with Snowball and no super brain and how he is in the show most of the time.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Looks like it's Maze Day." Cheddar sighed, watching as the scientists lugged a large box into the lab.

Brain and the other mice all looked over to watch the humans as well. While he had yet to run a maze in his new condition, he was quite familiar with them, recalling how he and Snowball went through several during the course of their time together. His heart ached at the reminder of his friend, he wondered how he was doing and if he knew what had happened to Brain.

His nostalgia was cut off as the cage door opened and the scientists began picking up the mice by their tails.

This maze didn't seem any different from previous courses, though he hoped that it'd be higher in difficulty since they were testing more intelligent mice now. Or at least more intelligent mouse. He still had trouble believing that the other mice were as advanced as him, none of them seemed as interested in learning as he did, though they didn't put him down because of it. They encouraged intelligence and loathed stupidity and ignorance, which Brain thought was funny since they were pretty ignorant themselves. Their treatment of one mouse in particular proved that.

"Okay. Is everybody accounted for?" Dash assumed the role of leader once again, while Brain's ear twitched and his nose wrinkled in distaste. When everyone confirmed that all the mice from their cage were present, the largest mouse pointed to the left pathway. "Then let's get this over with. I saw the scientists brought yogurt chips today."

The mice whispered to each other in excitement as they set off. Brain had started out somewhere in the middle of the group, but his legs were shorter and he was more towards the end by the time he noticed someone was missing. He turned around and sure enough, the blue eyed mouse was still at the beginning of the maze, pacing back and forth, at a loss of where to go.

"Hey, wait a minute," Brain called out to the others. "We're not all here."

Cheddar and Albino stopped and looked at who he was talking about. "Oh, him." Albino brushed him off. "He never finishes the maze."

Brain stared at him. "How is that possible?"

"He's too stupid." Cheddar shrugged. "He doesn't always follow us, so he's doomed from the beginning. And when he does follow us, he ends up getting distracted and wandering off somewhere." He noticed Brain looking back at the dim-witted mouse again. "Don't worry about him, the humans always take him out the next day. It's a nice reprieve really."

Cheddar and Albino continued on their way, but Brain lingered a minute. It didn't take a genius to see that the other mouse was really upset. Plus, he didn't feel right about leaving him in there all alone during the night.

"I'm going to regret this…" Brain muttered to himself as he backtracked to the start of the maze.

Big blue eyes glimmered with unshed tears as he twisted his tail between his paws. He was mumbling nonsense to himself as he paced, looking up towards the sky in the hopes that someone would reach in a take him out. Brain observed him quietly, he honestly appeared terrified, despite there being nothing frightening. He cleared his throat, though it came out more like a tiny squeak, and got the other's attention.

"Beverly?" He sniffled, surprising the slightly smaller mouse with his lack of recall.

Holding out his paw, Brain took charge of the situation. "It's Brain. Come on, follow me and I'll lead you out of here."

He watched as the blue eyes stared at his paw as if it were a foreign object before he raised his gaze to meet his own pink one. "We're not going to go that way, are we?"

"Why not?"

"Because that's the wrong way. Zort!" Brain felt inclined to doubt the other mouse. "There's no cheese smell that way. The cheese smell is this way." He pointed down the right corridor.

Raising a curious eyebrow, Brain took a moment to see if this was true. He sniffed the air around the right path and, though it took a few moments, the faint aroma of cheese registered. When he tried the other path, he had no such luck.

"How did you pick up that scent?" He asked, a little bit impressed but more unconvinced that he'd picked it up so quickly.

The mouse shrugged. "I like cheese."

When no other explanation came forth, Brain let it lie and turned right instead. He gestured for his companion to follow who did so obediently. He felt something latch onto his tail and turned around. The baby mouse had it clutched tightly in his own paws, looking quite pleased with himself.

"Narf!" He chirped.

Brain shook his head, but made no attempt to dislodge his paws. After all, it felt nice to be the leader and have someone else depending on him to show them the way.

"Come on, we have to keep going!" Brain was growing frustrated with his companion's unwillingness to cooperate. "We're not going to get anywhere with you sitting there."

"But I've never been this far in the maze before!" The other mouse cried. "I'm scared!"

Brain groaned, taking a moment to knock his head against the wall to release some of his agitation. "I for one can't understand how you've never managed to complete a maze when you can smell which way the cheese is from the beginning."

He sniffled, rubbing his eyes with his paws. "P-poit. The cheese smell goes away after a while and that's when I get lost."

Though he didn't want to, Brain had to give him that. These mazes in particular were designed to be more challenging for the enhanced mice, taking long enough that eventually they became desensitized to the scent and lost track of it. Luckily Brain was able to deduce which paths went through from the amount of light in the area. They'd been doing just fine up to this point.

"We'll be out of here before you know it, just get up and keep moving." Brain placed his hands on his hips and tapped his foot impatiently.

The other shook his head. "I don't want to!"

"Arrg! I don't understand! I thought you didn't want to stay in here overnight!" They were getting nowhere, Brain had half a mind to just leave him sitting there and finish the maze on his own.

"I don't!" He wailed. "B-but what if I get lost? You'll leave me! The others always leave me behind to get lost! And-and-and it's darkest in the middle of the maze! I don't like it! Narf!" His body spasmed in time with his sobs.

The anger melted out of Brain's system as he watched the little mouse cry. It returned momentarily, directed at the other mice who tormented a poor simpleton for far too long just for their own amusement. Clearly they'd scarred the little mouse for life. "Those buffoons." He grumbled. "They don't deserve to be part of Project B.R.A.I.N." He began pacing the length of the corridor. "They have less intelligence as a whole than I have in my pinky!"

"Yes?"

Brain stopped his raving, glancing over at his companion still seated on the floor. "What?"

"You called my name." He rubbed at his eyes again.

Confused, Brain attempted to clarify. "I thought you said you didn't have a name."

"Poit! I didn't, but can that be my name?" Blue eyes blinked up at the intelligent mouse.

"I was only talking about how moronic those other mice are." Brain didn't have the fondest clue what the other was referring to. "I didn't say any names. I just said my pinky is smarter than they are."

"There that one!" He pointed and smiled, all traces of tears gone.

Brain tilted his head. "Pinky?"

"Narf!" He clapped his paws together and beamed happily.

He took that as a 'yes', though 'narf' seemed to mean any number of things. "But, I don't think I'm qualified to name you. That's just…"

"Of course you are!" 'Pinky' exclaimed. "You're smart! You use funny words! And umm… you have a big head!"

Slightly annoyed by the so-called 'qualifications' it took to name him, Brain gave up debating the issue and decided if it made the other mouse happy (and get him moving out of the maze) then his name could be whatever he wanted it to be. "Fine. Now, come along… Pinky."

"Okay, Bingo!" His fear of the middle of the maze forgotten, Pinky latched onto Brain's tail again.

"It's Brain." If anything, he'd forget his newly given name in about ten seconds.

Turning a few more corners, it only took the pair a little while longer to see the cheese at the end of the tunnel. They both grinned at each other before scampering over to their prize.

"YES!"

* * *

><p>And henceforth shall he be known as Pinky!<p>

Yeah, I modified the whole "Brain naming Pinky accidentally" from the series... I wanted to keep that bit because it amused me ^^ plus, I can't see any other way why Brain would decide to call him that unless Pinky desired it. And if Pinky named himself, he would've come up with a name like "Shoelace" or "Finnegan", not that those are any worse than Dash, Pellet, or Cedar, they're just not Pinky.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Surprisingly enough, with all the stops and the whining, Brain and Pinky made it to the end of the maze first.

The scientists were impressed. "It's this little guy's first time in the maze."

Another piped up. "And that little guy's first time out."

Intrigued by the outcome, they placed the pair of mice back in the cage and rewarded them with yogurt chips. Pinky was delighted, he ate two right on the spot, then went off to hide the other two for later. Brain had never had a yogurt chip, but after tasting his first one he decided it would also be his last. He gave his four to Pinky.

"Poit! No, I can't take your yogurt chips!" The blue eyed mouse looked aghast at the prospect.

Brain rolled his eyes. "I insist."

"But Bacon! They're yogurt chips! Yogurt!"

"It's Brain! And I don't care, I don't like them." The shorter mouse crossed his arms, trying hard to convince himself that he wasn't pouting. "If you don't take them, I'm going to throw them away."

This startled Pinky even more, so he took the snacks and hid them away with his others. Brain sighed, exhausted from the day's events. The quiet of the cage was nice, being around fourteen male mice was quite taxing. He didn't want to go to sleep just yet though, knowing once the others got back he'd be roused by their chatter. Instead he decided to do some more reading. He started on Webster's dictionary the day before and got all the way to the "L"s. He figured if he was going to be as intelligent as he thought he was, he was going to have to speak intelligently.

He liked saying all the really big words too. They made him feel twice as smart.

"What are you doing?"

Brain jumped, so immersed in his reading that he didn't hear Pinky come up behind him. "Don't do that!" He snapped, placing a hand over his heart.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. Poit." Pinky apologized, not even fazed by Brain's shouting.

Trying to appear indignant, Brain lifted his head and straightened his tail. "You didn't scare me. I was…" He racked his mind for a new, fancy word to use. "Taken aback."

Pinky blinked. "Where's that?"

Of course it would be lost on him. "Nevermind." Brain waved it away.

The other mouse shrugged, his attention going back to his first question. "So what are you doing? Zort! More blocks? Can we play with them this time? I want to build a tower!"

"No, this isn't about blocks." Brain rolled his eyes, but was secretly pleased that Pinky remembered their conversation from that day. Perhaps his memory wasn't a total void. "It's a dictionary. It has all the words in the English language in it and what they mean."

"Naaarf." Pinky whispered in awe, then perked up. "You're learning a new language? You're so smart."

Once again, Brain was taken aback. "No, Pinky. We speak English."

"We do? When did we learn to do that?" He scratched his head. "Zort!"

"Okaaay, well, I speak English. You speak…" Brain searched for something that things like 'narf' and 'zort' could fall under. 'Gibberish' could work-

"Moron!" Pinky exclaimed.

"Moron?" Brain repeated, with less enthusiasm and more inquiry. "While that may be true, why would you call yourself that?"

"Oh, I didn't. That's what the others say. They say I talk like a moron. Where do they speak that language, Billy? And why do you have that funny look on your face?" Pinky blinked, poking the other mouse on the cheek.

Brain batted his paw away, but a scowl was definitely in place on the little mouse's face. "From now on, don't listen to anything they say, alright? Nod if you understand me." Pinky appeared hesitant. "I said-!"

"But what about when they tell me not to eat when they eat?" He asked, his ears drooping. "Last time I didn't listen, they bit my tail! And not in the fun fun silly willy way!"

While the other mice said hurtful things and isolated him from the group, Brain had yet to see them use violence. It unsettled him. "Well, don't listen to them when they call you names at least."

"Okay." Pinky nodded, plopping down right next to Brain. "I'll try."

"Good. At least we're getting somewhere." He muttered the last part under his breath. "Alright. You know how we're talking right now?" He waited for Pinky's nod. "We're using words. What's a word?"

"Bumblebee." Pinky giggled.

Brain thought for a moment. "Yes… that's true. But that's not what I meant."

"Pineapple?" Pinky offered.

Fighting the urge to hit the other mouse, he kept in mind that he suffered enough abuse from the other mice in the cage, he took a deep breath and continued. "No. A word is a combination of letters that means something. You know the alphabet right?"

"Who's he?"

"So you don't know the alphabet. At least we know where to start."

#

Pinky had learned A-G in the alphabet song by the time the other mice returned to the cage. Brain had been content to let him skip around the cage singing as he read more of the dictionary, but panicked once he saw the others were on their way.

"Pinky! Shush!" He hissed.

"A B C D E F G! NARF POIT ZORT NARF NARF NARF POIT!" Pinky belted out from the top of his lungs. "Again! A B C D-!" A yogurt chip pelted him in the head. "Narf! No, E comes next."

"We'll be throwing you next." Pellet groused, though he wasn't the only unhappy mouse. Eleven equally unhappy mice followed him in.

Pinky looked at their faces and his smile deflated. Pellet took one step towards him and Pinky went running to his cardboard tube. None of them so much as chuckled, Brain gulped, they must be really unhappy.

With Pinky gone, the mice turned their attention on Brain. "Well, well, well…" Dash hummed. "Look who we have here. The traitor."

While he figured they'd be displeased that he'd left their group to help out the outcast of the cage (let alone that they got out a good hour before them), he didn't think he'd be labeled a traitor. "A little extreme, don't you think?"

"No, don't _you_ think?" Dash threw back at him, a good attempt at an insult, but still weak as far as Brain was concerned. "I thought someone as smart as you would have the brains to know not to throw in your lot with a freak like that guy!"

Were they serious? What did it matter to them if he was nice to the other mouse or not? Brain bristled and his ear twitched rapidly, who was Dash to have authority over him, the Brain? "I'm sorry, I think I may have misunderstood you. Are you implying that I'm stupid?"

"Oh, wow, Mr. Genius over here figured it out!" Pellet cackled.

Cedar snarled. "You get an A for Obvious."

"Are you referring to the grade? Or do you actually believe "Obvious" starts with an "A"?" Brain was on a roll, it was actually kind of fun to rile these guys up.

This really did confuse Cedar for a moment or two, before Dash stepped in. "Okay, okay, let's slow down guys. Listen, short stack, you're new around here, so we'll cut you some slack. We get it, you feel bad for the damaged kid, but we have to face facts. He's just not like us. Ah bub bub!" Brain had attempted to respond, but the larger mouse slapped his paw over his mouth to prevent any outbursts. "Let's just let bygones be bygones. Okay, glad we got that settled, right guys? We forgive you, Brain. Now, I for one am wiped out. Bedtime guys, finish up your yogurt chips and we'll hit the hay."

All the mice grumbled in agreement, tired from their longer than normal maze adventure. Dash released Brain's mouth, the smaller mouse fuming. There was no point in yelling at them though, the moment had passed. He went to sleep over in what had become his spot over the past five days, and was joined by a few others not long after.

Once everyone was drifting off for the night, Brain heard a small rustle and looked up. Pinky was quietly approaching them, as he did every night, only to be warded off by a low growl, most likely Pellet again. With a whimper, Pinky backed away, finding some other corner of the cage to sleep in.

Glancing around at the mice surrounding him, Brain came to a conclusion. Quietly getting to his feet, careful not to disturb the others around him (not to be courteous, merely because he didn't want to deal with their grief) and crossed the cage to where the lone mouse was curled up. He settled down nearby, Pinky's ears flew up as the sound registered and he turned to look at who'd come to join him. Brain tried to ignore the foolish smile that lit up the other mouse's face, choosing to turn his head away. He heard the rustle of wood chips, anticipating what would come next. Sure enough, moments later he felt soft fur brushing against his own as Pinky cuddled up to him.

He contemplated pushing him away, but realized how contradictory that would seem since he purposely moved over there to make the other mouse feel better. Plus, he decided the cuddling wasn't all that bad. It reminded him of his time with Snowball, the warmth and the feeling of being home.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A dark cloud of despair loomed over Brain. Figuratively, of course.

None of the other mice approached him, not quite certain of the wrath he'd bring down upon them should he be disturbed. He was thankful for the distance, for the time to himself, but at the same time he abhorred it.

His mind was racing, speeding through memories and reasons and questions. What had gone wrong?

Earlier that day, everything had been fine. The other mice were in a better mood than they had been the previous day, although that didn't make Brain tolerate them any more, and they didn't even say anything about him choosing to sleep beside Pinky. They gave him dirty looks, sure, but it was easy enough to ignore that. Especially when his head was stuck in a book all morning.

Psychology was the subject of the day. While most of it applied solely to humans, Brain found it all very compelling save for Freud who he thought was just a joke. As he read, he gave Pinky a simple assignment to do. Counting. It was quieter than having him finish the alphabet. Using the yogurt chips from the day before, Brain would set up simple addition problems for Pinky in between chapters of his Psychology text.

"So if you have three yogurt chips and I have two, how many would we have if we put them together?" Brain asked, holding up the chips for Pinky to look at.

"Egad, Bruce." Pinky snorted. "That's a hard one."

Nonetheless, he took the proffered snacks from the larger headed mouse and stared at them with a good amount of concentration, his tongue peeking out as he squinted. Brain left him to it, returning to his text to learn about Cognitive Psychology.

Lucky for him Pinky was even willing to sit down and learn. The little blue-eyed mouse remained glued to his side all day. It was frustrating, he didn't want to be his babysitter, he just felt bad that no one was nice to him.

His ears perked up as laughter floated over to his corner, automatically assuming it was directed at Pinky. Reflexively checking on his shadow, Brain found that he was still lining up his yogurt chips in attempt to count them. Relieved that it didn't seem to be anything he was doing, other than taking a long time to say 'five', he looked over to see who was laughing and why.

Cedar, Cheddar, Rex, and Albino were all chasing each other and rolling around the cage. Apparently they were racing to the exercise wheel. Brain wrinkled his nose. For genetically enhanced mice, they didn't seem any better than normal mice. Still, the sight left him with a heavy heart. His ears drooped and he blinked rapidly. There weren't any tears, no, not at all, it just didn't hurt to be prepared in case any did start welling up.

"NARF! Looky looky!" Pinky clapped his paws together, then proudly spread his arms out to show off his answer. "Four!"

Brain glanced over at Pinky. "N-no, it's not. It's-" But indeed there were only four. There was also a lump in Pinky's cheek. "Don't eat your homework, Pinky."

The mouse whined, then swallowed. "I'm sorry, Bonnie, but I was hungry."

"Then go eat. You don't need me to go do that." He grumbled, folding his arms across his chest and kicking the wood chips lining the floor of their cage.

Pinky's ears wilted, along with his entire body it seemed. "Oh, okay. Poit." He got up and started to walk away on all fours, looking back hopefully. "You're not hungry?"

"No."

With a nod, the little mouse left leaving Brain with his book and his frustration. He wasn't even in the mood to read anymore, he just wanted to sulk. Pouting like the child he still was, he made shapes out of the remaining yogurt chips Pinky left behind.

The lab door opened and two of the scientists who worked with the mice came in. It didn't surprise him, they came and went all throughout the day, sometimes paying attention to them, sometimes not. They carried something with them though, a small travel cage. Brain wondered if they planned on taking them somewhere, but then he saw that it wasn't empty.

Above him, the humans chattered. "What do we do with him now? He wasn't supposed to go through the gene splicer."

"I know, but we can't undo it. Set him down here for now, I'll go see what Sharon and Vince had lined up for hamster experiments, or if they're willing to take on a new test subject."

Brain felt as if his heart leapt into his throat, despite being fully aware that it was physically impossible. He darted to the edge of the cage closest to where the travel carrier was set down, trying to get a better look. The other mice were intrigued by Brain's reaction and became curious as to what was inside. Several of them joined Brain, including Dash and Pellet.

Indeed, it was a hamster. A honey colored hamster that looked oh-too-familiar to Brain. The hamster didn't move for a moment, even though he must have been aware of all the eyes on him, choosing to slowly turn around to face them. The mice 'ooed' as they took in the hamster's bulbous head. Brain's eyes widened. It was him. It was really him! The little mouse could see past the genetically altered head to the friend he'd been forced to leave behind.

"Snowball!" Brain cried out happily, startling both himself and the mice around him. They'd yet to hear him actually sound cheerful. "Snowball, you're here!"

The hamster met his gaze, considerably less excited, though equally surprised. "Brain?" He blinked a couple times as if to assure himself that he wasn't seeing things. "So this is where they took you… your head…"

"Speak for yourself." Brain pointed out, looking over his friend's new appearance. "So you went through the gene splicer too?"

Snowball nodded. "I must say, I feel much more enlightened."

The word was not unfamiliar to him, but it was strange to hear it coming from his friend's mouth. Of course, Brain didn't speak the same way he used to either, he supposed it was just an effect of amplifying their intelligence. But something didn't feel quite right.

"How have you been?" Brain asked, the words 'I missed you' fighting to follow his question, but he forced the sentimentality back. Not in front of Dash and the others.

Snowball eyed his fingernails. "Oh, just dandy. For days I was completely beside myself with loneliness and fear that I would meet my demise in a similar manner as you, for I believed you to be dead, you see. That was the only solution. The friend I knew would've come back to me." Snowball glared at Brain, sending chills down his spine. "You left me."

At a loss, Brain fumbled for a response. "No, Snowball, I didn't want to go. I'd never leave you on purpose."

"Then why didn't you come back for me?" The hamster snarled. "You just wanted all the glory! You wanted to be smart all by yourself!"

Brain scowled, not even caring that they were causing a scene in front of the other mice. "That's not true! I didn't know where they took me! I was in the dark!"

"Yeah, well, you could've figured it out!" The hamster gripped the bars of his travel cage. "If you really wanted to, you would've come back for me!" This time Brain's eyes really were watering. "Some friend you are!"

"Snowball, please, I'm sorry-!"

"I don't want to hear it!" Snowball snapped. "I wish you misery, Brain, misery that I had to endure alone when I was a simpleton, too overcome by attachments and emotions to know any better. But now I do. The only one you can count on is yourself."

Brain shrunk into himself. How could this be? What had his friend turned into? Was it really all his fault? Sometime during the argument, the other mice had backed away, leaving Brain alone at the bars. Snowball turned his back on Brain, huddling down by his food dish. He wasn't sure how long he watched the hamster, but eventually the scientists came back and took his carrier away and Brain was alone again.

So now, the dark cloud of despair overwhelmed him. His best friend hated him. Tears spilled out over white fur. That wasn't fair! He didn't ask for any of this to happen! Why did he have to lose his only friend? He released a frustrated shout and kicked the cage, torn between wanting to break down and cry like a child or rip something apart with his teeth. Instinct overshadowed logic.

Caught between the two options, he didn't notice the presence that came up behind him until a pair of arms wrapped around him. He thrashed and sputtered, breaking free from their grasp and glaring at the offender.

"What're you doing?"

Pinky looked at him as if he were the one with a simple mind. "Giving you a hug."

He said it so plainly that it caught Brain off guard, giving the other mouse enough time to embrace him a second time.

"Poit." He hiccupped then rubbed his back, crooning, "Don't be sad. The sun will come out tomorrow."

It was silly, to want comfort from a creature who couldn't remember his name, and Brain fought it. He tried. But the child in him won and Brain cried until Pinky's fur was damp and stiff from tears and then he cried a bit more. Pinky held him a little tighter and Brain hugged back in response, desperate for something to cling to. He had no parents, he had no best friend, he just had an idiot who was more than happy to sit with him through his emotional hurricane.

When he finally calmed down, he took the time to relish the comfort a hug could bring.

Pinky nudged his ear with his nose. "Feel better?"

"Yes." Brain croaked. "Thank you."

"Good! Narf!" He giggled, rocking Brain from side to side. "Being sad isn't fun. It makes you all moldy inside. Then you start to smell funny."

Getting a little dizzy from the tight hold and the rocking, Brain pulled free from Pinky's arms once again, holding onto the mouse's paws to keep him from reattaching himself. "Right. I'll keep that in mind."

His throat was still tight and his nose runny, but at least he wasn't a complete wreck. Embarrassment flooded him as his rational side regained control. He averted his pink eyes to the floor, not even able to meet the clueless blue ones that would bear no judgment.

Pinky tilted his head to the left in confusion. Brain still held his paws in his own, but with his head tipped downward he still looked upset. Leaning forward, Pinky let his nose prod at Brain's, startling the other mouse into staring back at him. Pinky beamed upon gaining his attention, then proceeded to lick Brain's nose.

"Pinky!" Brain pulled away, making faces and scrubbing at his face with his paws. "Ew! That's gross!"

High-pitched laughter was his only response. He glared at his offender, who was holding his midriff and appearing positively giddy. When he quieted, he simply smiled at Brain once again before rolling onto his belly. Brain observed him, perplexed by this position as Pinky raised his tail in the air and crouched, resting his chin on his front paws. A telling gleam in his blue eyes alerted Brain to what would be coming next.

"Don't you dare!" He hollered, stumbling over himself as he tried to back away too quickly. "No!"

It was too late.

Pinky leapt onto Brain and licked him again, this time on top of his head. Brain shuddered at the slickness of saliva coating his fur, then attempted to buck the other mouse off him. Pinky held tight, rolling with him along the floor of the cage and playfully nibbled his ear.

"Stop it! Pinky!" Brain tried to sound firm and angry, but he didn't quite achieve this as he sounded more amused than anything. "I'm going to have to hurt you!"

With a well placed kick in the side, not enough to hurt but more than enough to push, he dislodged the leech-like Pinky. The giggling ball of fur somersaulted several times before landing sprawled out on his back. He started to sit up, only to be tackled to the ground again by Brain who delivered a few quick nips to his ears.

"Narf!" Pinky cried out gleefully, pawing at Brain and hitting him with his tail.

The little mouse was stubborn though, managing to roll them over twice before he lost his balance and fell off to the side. After that began the impromptu game of tag, each chasing the other around their corner of the cage until their victim was tackled. It only ended after the little mice were completely exhausted, Brain collapsing with Pinky nestled atop his back. Though winded, the blue eyed mouse still snorted out a few quiet laughs, his tail wagging profusely.

"Mmm, poit! That was fun, wasn't it Brain?" Pinky propped his front paws up on Brain's head, grinning down at him.

Brain looked up at him, and Pinky had his answer. He was smiling, for the first time since he'd gone through the gene splicer, his own tail wagging in synch with Pinky's.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Brain! Brain! Brain!"

While he was glad (and a little proud) that Pinky remembered his name, Brain wished he'd come to the realization that he didn't have to run around yelling it all day long.

"What is it, Pinky?"

The little mouse waved at him. "Hi! NARF!"

Not for the first or last time did Brain wonder about that odd tic of his. "Yes, hello, Pinky. Anything else?"

"Look what I can do!" He stuck his tongue out, then curled it along the sides so it formed a little tube.

"Fascinating."

"I know, isn't it?" Pinky looked so proud of himself, Brain wasn't sure if he should be grateful or annoyed that sarcasm had no effect on him whatsoever.

Brain was practicing algebra, which proved to be slightly more challenging than arithmetic but nothing that he couldn't handle. It took him some time to get back into the spirit of things and his pursuit of knowledge. He took Snowball's hatred of him hard, harder than being separated from his parents. He couldn't remember his time spent with them, but he could remember lazy afternoons telling jokes with the hamster or going on adventures whenever the scientists accidentally left the door to their cage unlatched. He could remember wanting and needing someone, and being wanted and needed back. To know he was now no longer wanted or needed by Snowball hurt, against his better judgment, but he couldn't shake the morose feelings away.

Unable to concentrate on studying after Snowball left, Brain devoted his day to tending to Pinky. After they played together, Brain resumed teaching Pinky basic skills he figured the mouse should have. Reading was surprisingly easy for the little mouse. He caught on fairly quickly once he finished learning the alphabet (though he needed to teach him a new song, it was driving everyone crazy).

While he enjoyed his day off with Pinky, today he needed to make up for lost time.

"Pinky, can you please do something quiet? I'm trying to focus." Brain pointed to the numbers on the page in front of him.

Pinky nodded. "Yes, of course, Brain! Narf! Oops." He clamped a paw over his mouth, then whispered. "I mean, yes. Of course, Brain. Narf."

Brain rolled his eyes. "Thank you."

Pinky roamed around for a little bit, trying to find something to occupy his attention. A piece of lint worked for a while. He chased it around, but after a while it got boring since it didn't chase back. Then he spied the paper that Brain was drawing little pictures on. His interest was piqued, he wanted to draw too!

Sidling up beside the studious mouse, Pinky nudged Brain gently. The other mouse gave him his attention and Pinky pointed to the paper. "Can I have some?"

"Of course." Brain handed him a blank sheet, then upon consideration, grabbed one of his spare lead points he broke off the nearby pencils. He was lucky the scientists were so messy; their office supply was always in easy access of their cage.

"Zort! Thanks, Brain!" Pinky plopped down beside his friend, angled away from him and began scribbling.

Brain watched with some intrigue before shrugging and turning back to his own work. He was growing fond of the quadratic equation. After a few minutes of the soft scratching of lead against paper, Pinky tapped Brain on the shoulder.

"How do you spell 'best'?" He asked.

"B-E-S-T."

"Poit!"

A few more minutes of quiet working, then another tap.

"What, Pinky?"

"Sorry, Brain, but how do you spell 'ever'?"

"E-V-E-R. Now be quiet and let me work." Brain snapped, maybe reading and writing wasn't the best thing to teach him since he still couldn't spell to save his life.

Pinky bit his lip and nodded. "Okay. I will. I just want to give you this first!"

Putting the finishing touches on whatever he'd been working on, Pinky proudly displayed it for Brain to see. Pink eyes widened once he realized it was a drawing. Two little mice smiling and holding hands, a big sun in the sky, and above them he'd wrote: "BEST frEnDs 4 EvEr". The paper was shoved into his paws, but he carefully kept it from being wrinkled. For a while he just looked at it, then he shifted his gaze to Pinky. He was startled to see the blue eyes filling with tears.

"Pinky, what's wrong?"

"You don't like it." He mumbled, ears drooping and lip quivering.

Brain blinked rapidly. No, no he was not crying two days in a row! "No, of course I like it! Why would you think I didn't?"

"You're not smiling." He looked beside himself, not sure if he should still be upset or happy that his friend liked his picture. "You just have a funny look on your face. Kinda like yesterday, when Frostbite said mean things to you. You don't think I'm saying mean things, do you? Did I spell it right?"

He underestimated the other mouse's perception, perhaps he made up in empathy what he lacked in common sense.

"Here! Give it back, I'll fix it!" Pinky reached out for the drawing, but Brain pushed him back, clutching the picture close to his chest.

"No, I like it how it is, it's fine." The other mouse looked unconvinced. "It just surprised me, that's all."

Pinky frowned. "Why?"

Brain squirmed awkwardly under Pinky's scrutinizing gaze, really, why did he choose now to display cognitive reasoning abilities? "I just… I didn't know I was your… best friend…"

He felt really stupid, which didn't happen often and he made a mental note to never feel this way again. It was quite degrading. In hindsight it was obvious the other mouse considered him his best friend. No one else showed him a speck of kindness, yet here Brain was giving him more attention in three days than he probably received in his life, depending on when he was separated from his family. He hadn't even named an inanimate object since their journey through the maze.

"Poit. Is that all?" Brain looked over to see Pinky's smile stretched wide across his cheeks and his tail wagging. "You're my very best friend, Brain! You share your yogurt chips with me and you say things to me, even though I don't know what you're saying most of the time, and you play with me! We have a fun fun silly willy time!" He laughed, latching onto Brain arm. "And you don't make me eat or sleep alone. That's the best part. I don't like being alone."

Pinky nuzzled into Brain's side and sighed contentedly. Brain tilted his head, resting it against Pinky's and contemplated this newfound friendship. He'd been comparing Pinky to an annoying charge, something that needed to be taken care of. He knew Pinky got something out of their relationship, but did he?

Looking at the drawing once again, Brain had his answer. He glanced at Pinky, his eyes were shut as he rested beside him, then grabbed a new sheet of paper and wrote a simple equation on it.

M x M = M2

He shook Pinky gently, the little mouse opening his eyes immediately, and handed him the piece of paper. Blue eyes blinked for a moment before Pinky grinned and hugged the equation tightly.

"Oh! Thank you, Brain! I love the letter M! Marshmallows! Maps! Mustard! Moose!"

"Mice." Brain supplied, smiling at Pinky's exuberance.

Pinky looked between Brain and the letters several times before it dawned on him. "Mice! Oh, two mice! Egad, it's us, Brain! We're letters!"

"Indeed we are."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"This is getting ridiculous."

"The freak's just getting more annoying by the minute."

"I liked it better when he cowered in the corner…"

Brain's ear twitched as he overhead the mutterings of Pellet and a few other mice. Eyes narrowing, he pretended to be immersed with his readings. History was the subject of the day, a meticulous analysis of it, however he was taking a break to rest his eyes when the other mice's conversation reached him. Normally whatever they had to say was too inane for him to even bother paying attention to it, but the subject matter concerned his newfound friend, so he felt obliged to listen in.

"It's all Brain's fault, I mean, if he wasn't nice to the guy then he'd still be miserable instead of dancing around and pretending to know things."

"He actually thinks he can read."

"Like the empty hole in his head can retain anything."

The mice snickered and Brain stopped short of cracking his lead in half. While Pinky was certainly on the low end of the IQ scale, it didn't qualify him as a freak. And he proved capable of learning, even if Brain wasn't sure how much the other mouse could retain. In any case, the fact that the others were annoyed by Pinky's happiness aggravated him.

He spared Pinky a glance. The other mouse hadn't played much with him today, choosing to spend his day with a paperclip and a push pin. He looked pleased with himself, unaware of the poison being exchanged behind him. Was Pinky aware of the others' feelings towards him? And if so, to what extent?

"Let's stick him in the cardboard tube and block the ends. That's always fun!" Pellet suggested and Brain stiffened, finally turning around to look at them.

The other mice all cheered in agreement. Pinky was terrified of the dark, that wasn't a secret to anyone. Brain slid over next to Pinky, getting closer in case the other mice tried anything. The blue eyed mouse wasn't playing as energetically anymore, appearing wilted as he spun the paperclip around on the tip of the push pin. Brain gave Pinky's leg a reassuring pat, relieved to see his face light up at the attention.

"Want to play, Brain?" He asked, holding out the push pin towards him.

Luckily Brain had the foresight to lean back when he did this, the point dangerously close to his eye. "Um, no th-"

"Look out, Brain! He's got a weapon!" Albino hollered over at him.

Pellet nodded. "He's so stupid, he's trying to kill the only friend he's got."

"Better lock him up before he turns on us next!" The laughter that rippled through the group made Brain grind his teeth together.

Pinky tossed the push pin off to the side, wringing his paws together. "No! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!"

"Pinky, it's fine. You wouldn't have hurt me." Brain attempted to placate his friend as tears threatened to spill out. "It's okay."

"Brain, it was cute at first, but seriously, stop coddling him!" Pellet yelled at him, getting the attention of Dash and the rest of the cage. "It's driving me crazy!"

Brain glowered. "Why? Who I choose to spend my time with does not involve you in any way."

"It's not as fun to make fun of him if you're there to stop it all the time." Cedar rolled his eyes.

Brain snorted. "Sorry to have disrupted such an iconic pastime. But I'm sure you can find something else to occupy your idle minds with."

"Hey, he's right." Pellet acknowledged, looking around at the others. "Let's stick him in the tube and block the ends!"

Folding his arms across his chest, he sighed. "Yes, sounds like jolly fun, except you forget that I'm not afraid of the dark. I'd just end up taking a nap."

The other mice just grumbled as they realized this, then sauntered away to play on the exercise wheel. Pinky and Brain watched them depart, then turned their attention to each other.

"Poit. I'm sorry, Brain. I've made them mad at you now too." Pinky twisted the paperclip around in his paws.

Brain shook his head. "Nonsense, Pinky. It's not your fault they're too small-minded to expand their interests past bullying."

This cheered up Pinky a little. "Egad, Brain, and you're so brave. When they keep me in the tube it's really scary."

"There's nothing to be scared of, Pinky. The tube is no different in the light than it is in the dark." He explained. "You like going in the tube when they don't block the exits, right?"

"Very much, I love my tube! But not when I can't get away from the scary dark." He shivered. "Aren't you scared of anything, Brain?"

"Of course not. As long as I can look at everything logically, nothing is scary. Except maybe cats and predatory birds, but that's an instinctive issue."

#

That night, it was especially dark in the lab since the clouds blocked out the light of the stars and the moon. After dinner, Pinky stuck close to Brain, taking some extra time to fall asleep. He jumped at every little sound and kept asking if monsters could get them in the cage. It wasn't until Brain took Pinky's paw in his that the other mouse felt reassured enough to drift off to sleep. Brain followed suit soon after.

A bright flash of light and low rumble startled him awake sometime in the night. Blinking rapidly and trying to calm his racing heart, Brain's gaze flitted around every corner of the cage. All the other mice were sleeping peacefully, including the one sprawled against his side, limbs going every which way as he rolled onto his back in his sleep. Focusing on Pinky's even breathing got Brain to slowly settle down.

Rain pelted the glass window above their cage. He swallowed thickly, then mentally kicked himself for getting so worked up over a storm. The lightning split the sky and his heart leapt into his throat. The rolling thunder had him scooting closer to Pinky, even though they were already practically joined at the hip.

"It's just electricity…" He whispered to himself, clenching his eyes shut. "Atmospheric electric discharge. And the thunder… it's an increase in pressure… in the air… a-and temperature…" He attempted to sort out the reasons behind thunderstorms in his head, but it was hard when his heart was beating so fast. "It's not going to hurt me."

The thunder seemed to clap above his head and he jumped. The lighting flashing brightly, he could see it even with his eyes shut. To his side he felt Pinky stir, cursing himself for having such a violent reaction. Yet he didn't move. He curled up in a small ball, trying to keep from shaking too hard in order to not disturb Pinky more.

The other mouse was already awake though. Blinking sleepily, he rubbed his eyes and rolled onto his stomach. He felt the tremors at his side and looked over to find the culprit. His eyes widened as he saw Brain, the mouse's head tucked under his arms as he quivered.

"Brain?" Pinky whispered worriedly, nudging the smaller mouse with his nose. "Are you alright?"

Brain didn't answer, his voice caught behind the lump in his throat.

Pinky frowned, resting his head on Brain's back. "Brain, what's wrong? Are you feeling sick?"

Brain shook his head 'no', but didn't move other than that. At a loss of what to do, Pinky settled for rubbing Brain's back and shoulders reassuringly. When the lightning and thunder came again, the cowering mouse jumped again and Pinky got his answer.

Turning up to the window, Pinky scolded the weather. "Be quiet, storm! You're scaring my friend!" When he didn't get a response from the rain, he narrowed his eyes. "Use your inside voice. There's no need to be shouting. Narf!"

The idea of Pinky actually telling the storm off brought a bubble of laughter out from within Brain. He poked his head out and looked over at Pinky, who was wearing a scowl and looked pretty annoyed.

"Storm, I'm going to count to three! One! Umm… I know this… oh! Poit! Two! And, uhh, ermm…"

"Don't hurt yourself, Pinky." Brain advised his friend.

Pinky looked distressed. "But, Brain, it's not listening! It's being mean!"

"It's not trying to be." Calming down a little, but still visibly shaking and not free from his ball-like position, Brain tried to calm Pinky as well. "You don't have to yell at it."

"But, it's upsetting you." Pinky protested. "You always tell the other mice to go away and stop it when they make me upset, and I wanted to do the same." His ears wilted. "I guess I'm not very good at it, the storm's probably laughing at me."

Brain squirmed beside Pinky, caught in an odd web of amusement, fear, concern, and happiness. "Oh, Pinky…" The lightning sent another shiver up his spine and Pinky wrapped an arm around him. "Trust me, the storm is not laughing at you." The thunder sounded moments later, Pinky tightened his grip on Brain at just the right second, letting him bury his face in his side. "S-see? You chased it away. The thunder came later, it means the storm's moving away from us. It listened to you."

"Really?" Pinky gasped in awe. "So I did help?"

"Yeah, you helped. Thank you." Brain winced as Pinky tightened the hug, but it was only for a moment.

Pinky's tail curled around them both, making it so that Brain was almost completely encircled by his friend. "You're welcome. Zort! I like helping."

While he was embarrassed by his irrational fear of storms, with Pinky humming softly by his ear and surrounding him with warmth, Brain felt a connection with the other mouse that would've been lost on him had they not shared this experience. A reciprocal need.

When the lightning and thunder came again, the smaller mouse wasn't awake to hear it. Pinky smiled, watching the rain in the window make pretty pictures as he listened to his friend's gentle breathing.

"Narf..."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Brain's stomach grumbled. In the middle of a page on quantum statistics too. Any and all attempts to ignore such feelings of hunger were in vain, he couldn't concentrate with his stomach churning so. Marking his page, since Pinky had a habit of playing with his books when he wasn't in the vicinity, Brain got to his feet and stretched as he looked about for the other mouse.

Pinky was chewing on a stick in the corner. Raising an eyebrow as he watched him gnaw on the colored wood with his tail wagging gleefully behind him, Brain had to wonder if the gene splicer left him part canine. Leaving him to his own activities, he began his leisurely stroll over to the bowl of food pellets.

Just as he grabbed one, his paw was smacked by another.

"Ow!" Brain yelped, dropping the food whilst he brought his stinging paw to his chest. He glared at the offender. "What was the meaning of that?"

Cedar returned the bitter stare. "You're not supposed to eat now. You have to wait until dinner."

Arching an eyebrow, Brain snorted. "Really? I was not aware of this regulation."

"Well, now you are." Cedar confirmed. "Come back in an hour."

It wasn't Brain's hunger that fueled his fury, no. Even if he had been completely satiated, he still would refuse to follow this regiment. Being told what to do by mice who held no power over him, who were actually inferior to him if one went by intelligence level (disregarding Pinky, entirely), did not sit well with him.

Folding his arms across his chest, Brain scowled. "No, I don't think I will. I wish to procure sustenance now, not later, and you are in no position to stop me."

"He may not be, but I am." He didn't even have to turn around to recognize Dash's condescending tone. The small mouse rolled his eyes, of course Dash would be behind this.

Brain slowly shifted so he could have the larger mouse in his line of sight. "Oh, how could I forget, oh ruler of the cage." The sarcasm lacing his voice had its intended effect on his fellow mice. "Should I curtsey? Lest I forget that you are far superior to the rest of us."

Dash growled while The Brain smirked. The self-proclaimed leader took an intimidating step towards him, straightening his shoulders so that he reached his full height. His fingers clenched into fists, Brain followed suit, and Dash was about to take another step before Pinky darted between the two, his paws up in a placating manner.

"Please don't hurt him! He didn't mean it!" The squeak that issued from Pinky sounded so unlike the mouse Brain had come to get to know.

He frowned at his friend's interference. "Pinky, get out of here! You're in the way!"

"Yeah, idiot, listen to your mommy." Dash sneered, leaning in right into Pinky's face, their noses almost touching.

Pinky's shoulders shook with tremors, but he held his ground. "P-p-poit…"

"Puh-puh-puh-poit." The mockery initiated the boiling of Brain's blood, Dash making horrific faces at the little mouse as he blatantly teased the tic that Pinky didn't seem to have any control over.

Brain watched his ears droop and his tail wither. "I… I'm not s-scared of you."

Dash grew silent, as did the crowd of mice who'd come to observe this confrontation. "Is that so? Well, ninny, that doesn't sit well with me at all."

Pinky's tail straightened along with his shoulders. "My name isn't ninny, it's Pinky."

"Oh right, a stupid name for a stupid mouse." Dash sniffed, looking over the little mouse with disdain.

"Hey, now-!" Brain attempted to interject, moving to stand beside Pinky rather than behind him, but was cut off by none other than Pinky himself.

"It's not stupid! My very best friend in the whole wide world gave it to me! P-p-p…" His body trembled as he fought back his usual nonsensical exclamation. "It's- it's special!"

Dash chuckled, a hateful sound that Brain wished he could block out. "It's special alright. Real special."

The Brain could not fathom, even with his ever-growing span of intellect, how someone could hate another so much for no reason other than they were a little different. Sure, Pinky's quirks were bizarre and he wasn't all that intelligent, but his heart more than made up for the lack of sense. He took hold of Pinky's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. It caught the mouse's attention, a grateful smile shone his way.

Unfortunately, Dash also noticed. "How adorable, the little freaks are in love-"

He was silenced by the heated glare Brain sent his way. "Say what you like about me, but do not bring him into this. This all started because of me, and that's how it's going to remain. You say another word about Pinky and I will not hesitate to bite you." He'd done it before, in his old cage with Snowball he had the tendency to be "temperamental". "I know where all the pressure points are. I can assure you it will be painful."

A collective murmur floated through the crowd of mice around them, some looked doubtful and others worried, not sure what to make of the genius mouse's promise. Dash narrowed his eyes, but he stepped back, without another glance at the blue-eyed mouse. Pinky glanced between Brain and Dash, finally settling on his friend. Brain couldn't afford to break the stare he'd caught Dash in, though he offered another squeeze of their entwined paws for reassurance's sake before he released him.

Taking a step forward, Brain squared his shoulders and folded his arms across his chest. While he was firm believer in brains over brawn, he was well aware that instinctively it made sense to appear as intimidating as possible. Plus, he was still awfully little. It took small things like Pinky playing with him or cuddling him or tickling him to remind him that he was still a very young mouse. His thirst for knowledge and his vast intelligence made him forget sometimes, Pinky grounded him, reminded him of his temporary limitations, loved him.

Brain hoped he'd never forget that in the face of another desire. He wanted to be wanted, and no one wanted him more than Pinky.

"You've got a lot of nerve, short stack." Dash hissed, gathering himself up as well to stand as tall as could.

That didn't sit very well with Brain. In one fluid motion, he grabbed hold of the other mouse's nose and yanked him down to eye level. Everyone gasped unison, but Brain paid them no mind as he made sure to look directly in Dash's eyes. "We all get it, Dash. I'm short. You're ugly, you don't see me throwing that around every five minutes." He paused for effect. "Now see here, you are not the leader of this cage. You do not make the rules. And even if you do, I will not follow them because there is nothing that says I have to other than your flapping mouth. The fact that you all are trapped in this mob mentality further proves your lack of intelligence, making you all incapable of thinking for yourselves. You know what that says about you? I, the most intelligent mind in here, am completely convinced that Pinky is smarter than all of you. Individually and combined. He knows how to think for himself." Brain has to pause on that one, mostly because he wasn't quite sure if he would label Pinky's mental activities as thinking. He was more of an act now, think never type of mouse, but that was beside the point.

"And if you try anything, or have your dim-witted lackeys try anything, I will have to hurt you." He released the larger mouse, satisfied with the speech he'd delivered, and moved to grab a hold of the food pellet he so craved.

"You and what army?" Clearly, Brain had not been intimidating enough.

He turned around to look up at Dash, the flashed him a small smile. "This."

Then he proceeded to kick him in the shin.

The howl Dash released was quite satisfactory, Brain mused as he munched on his dinner. Sure, it hurt his own foot a little, but the pain was worth seeing Dash crumple to the floor, made a fool by the little genius. A tug on his arm caught his attention, Pinky latched onto his arm like a leech—albeit, a loveable leech—and stared at Brain in horror.

His good mood fled as quickly as it had come on. "What's wrong, Pinky?"

Pinky opened his mouth, an explanation at the ready, but Brain never got to hear it. One second, he was gazing into a pair of wide blue eyes questioningly, then next, he got an eyeful of the ground as his body collided with the bars of the cage. He dimly heard Pinky's squeak of protest over the cheers of the other mice as he struggled to right himself.

Focusing his attention on where he'd last been, The Brain noted that Dash had recovered from his kick to the shin and had taken advantage of Brain's distraction to smack him away. Shaking his head to clear the stars, he barely had enough time to dart away before Dash's fist met with his skull.

"You think you can take me on, mister know-it-all?" He bellowed, and for a moment Brain felt like the small child he still was. Afraid and weak.

Instinct warred with rational and the former was winning. The Brain beat himself in the forehead when he realized he'd run into a corner, effectively trapping himself despite the comfort a closed off area afforded him. Dash, along with Pellet and Cedar, approached at a dangerous pace. The tiny genius felt his synapses firing rapidly, trying to calculate a means of escape. If he could get the angle right, he could slip between Dash and Cedar…

Suddenly, Dash released a high-pitched shriek. All the mice backed away, including the leader's companions, as he thrashed about wildly. Brain arched an eyebrow, completely at a loss until Dash turned around and he took note of the creature attached to him.

Everyone had been so focused on Brain, no one had noticed little Pinky leap onto the back of the larger mouse to sink his teeth into his shoulder. Dash tried to buck him off, but Pinky's paws held tight to the fur around his neck. His eyes clamped shut as he focused on not losing his grip. Astounded, Brain watched dumbly for a few seconds before it occurred to him to help his friend before Dash bashed him against the cage bars.

His paw reached out, to grip Pinky's tail, but before his fingers could clasp around the appendage, it slipped away. The little mouse himself had been lifted right off Dash's back by the hands of a scientist. All the mice of the cage watched as Pinky was carefully handled by the man. Pinky, on the other hand, appeared extremely distressed, the adrenaline from his fight or flight reaction still rushing to his head.

"Brain!" He wailed, peering over the edge of the man's gloved hands to see his friend and fellow mice far below him.

The cage door shut. Both mice felt the blood in their veins turn cold.

"Pinky!" Brain rushed over, no longer mindful of the mob of mice or Dash, and gripped the cage bars, staring up at his friend tearfully. It was like when he'd been taken from his parents… from Snowball… now Pinky? Would these humans ever stop? "No! Come back!"

The scientist was approached by a colleague and proceeded to explain what he was doing. Brain felt his heart drop when he heard him say: "…viciously attacked his fellow cagemates, better put him in solitary confinement now, run some aggression tests on him. He shouldn't be with other mice…" and the rest was lost on him because the rest didn't matter.

All that filled his ears were Pinky's heart-wrenching cries as he was carried away.

"Come back…" Brain gripped the cage so tightly it left imprints on his paws, loneliness washing over him as another important someone vanished from his sight.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The Brain huddled in the sleeping spot he shared with Pinky, watching over his paperclip, push pin, and other odds and ends with a sort of grim determination.

His arm ached from where he landed after Dash took another swat at him, but when he did nothing to egg the other mouse on further, he'd been left alone. Apparently it wasn't as much fun to beat up someone resigned to their fate. Brain sniffled, hugging the drawing Pinky had made from him. Best Friends Forever. He snorted, there was no such thing as forever, of that he was certain.

It just wasn't fair. The scientists had not seen the whole debacle, only looking in on their cage just in time to see Pinky bite Dash "for no apparent reason". So quick to judge. They had long since deemed their experiment a failure, Brain had noticed this when he was the last subject to be gene spliced. None of the mice, from what the scientists had observed, had experienced any notable changes. To them the mice couldn't think, couldn't have reasons behind their actions. It would never occur to them that Pinky had only been acting on his protective instinct, that he'd been abused by these other mice and only wanted to prevent his best, and only, friend from enduring similar treatment.

If anyone needed to be taken for "aggression testing" it was them. Because of them he'd lost yet another friend. Perhaps he was just meant to be alone…

Wiping his eyes, he glanced around the cage. The lab had closed hours ago, the room bathed in darkness save for the glow of the EXIT sign. A frown graced his features as he thought of Pinky, alone and scared in the dark in some strange room with unfamiliar smells. He clenched his jaw and fists, focusing his gaze on the door to the cage.

No, he couldn't just make this about him. Pinky didn't willingly leave, and if he were given the choice he probably would've stayed with him. This didn't have to be like with his parents or Snowball, for now he had the intellect. He could reason…

But what good did reason do when you were a mouse trapped in a cage?

Here he was, a genius, but completely at a loss of what to do to help his one and only friend. Intelligence fled in the face of panic, for that Brain berated himself. A genius should never lose track of their rational thinking capabilities.

But what could he do now? He flicked Pinky's push pin as his tail swished irritably. His mind was racing, attempting to overpower his heart's desire to sulk. Pink eyes fell on the paper clip, it was slightly bent, the end sticking out oddly. Brain stared hard at it and raised his brow. The shape… a paper clip was rather malleable… perhaps…

Taking the paper clip in paw, he padded over to the cage door and eyed the keyhole. His tongue poked out the side of his mouth as he worked the metal instrument into a key shape, capable of turning the tumblers of the lock. His work drew the attention of several other mice, they merely watched him in quiet observation. He narrowed his eyes in concentration as he wiggled the makeshift key around, his ear tuned into the clicks he was creating. Finally, the key halted and the door creaked open.

Brain blinked in astonishment. He opened the cage.

A collective gasp sounded from behind him, but he ignored it in favor of hopping out onto the countertop. Instincts had him sniffing around questioningly, his ears stiff and alert. No imminent danger. A satisfied smirk stretched across his face as he twirled the paper clip key around his wrist. After a quick once-over, Brain found a piece of string he used to tie the key to his back, odds were that Pinky was being held in a cage similar to this one, he'd need the key to free him. This way though, his hands were free and he didn't have to worry about accidentally dropping it.

He puffed out his chest, then turned to face the exit. His confidence wilted a bit as he stared at the rather large, closed door. Opening that would be tricky with him being so small. He tapped his fingers against his chin as he pondered.

"What do you think you're doing, shorty?" Pellet hissed, warily peering over the edge of the cage door.

Brain glanced over at him, and the other cowering mice, before rolling his eyes. "What does it look like?"

"You don't know what's out there!" Cedar whispered. "Rats! Cats! Mouse traps!" The others all murmured in agreement. "You gotta be crazy to go out there!"

"I'll take my chances." Brain huffed. "Pinky's out there somewhere, and it's my fault. The least I can do is bring him back."

The mice all groaned. "But we just got rid of him!" "His stupid chatter is finally gone!" "You insane? How can you possibly miss him?" The Brain ignored all their petty whimpering, instead focusing on a rubber band he spied in one of the open lab drawers. Scientists were awfully messy. He picked it up and tested its elasticity. Draping it over his shoulder, he held up his fingers to measure the angle between the counter and the door handle. Luckily it was one of the straight handles, rather than a round one he'd need to turn. This would be much easier to open.

Brain dashed back into the cage to retrieve the push pin he'd so carelessly flicked away. He took his weight, the distance, height, and air conditions into account and pressed the thumb tack into the wooden counter top at the correct location. He kicked it some to make certain it held, then looped the rubber band around it and himself. Carefully walking backwards, Brain held tight to the rubber band and lined his body up with the door handle. Once the rubber band had been stretched back far enough, Brain released himself.

Sheer terror filled him as he soared across the lab, ending in pain as he thudded against the handle. He groaned, but collected himself quickly before he slipped off the handle. Bracing his back against the door, Brain used his little leg muscles to push down on the handle. It gave just enough for it to become dislodged. The little mouse hopped from the handle to another counter, then down the drawers to the floor. Brushing off imaginary dust from his coat, he clapped his hands together then proceeded to tug the door open.

It took a bit of time to get the proper size to squeeze through, his head got stuck for a moment, but it was brief. Gathering his wits, he looked up and down the hall he entered. It wasn't very long, but there were several doors he would have to try. Luckily, he realized there were placards for each door. As he approached Lab #2, he paused as a familiar albeit faint scent reached him. Pinky.

Brain stared up at the door handle. This would be tricky, there was no ledge for him to clamber up, no way to reach it. He looked around the hall in earnest, brightening when he saw the janitor's cart right across from the door. It took a lot of effort, thank the heavens it had wheels, but Brain managed to roll it over. He scaled the mop until it leaned right against the door, then jumped onto the handle. It opened just enough. Brain thanked the powers that be for providing him with such a pliable body as he squeezed through the door and popped out on the other side. It must have been a result of the gene splicing, normal mice couldn't do that.

The scent was stronger.

"Pinky!" Brain whispered, craning his head to look up at the counters.

Several drawers were open in here as well. Sloppy humans. They couldn't take care of themselves at all, what gave them the right to be the controllers of all other creatures? Nonetheless, Brain used them to his advantage and clambered up to the countertop. There were several cages scattered about. Some contained normal rodents and the others had gene spliced ones. Silently, Brain trekked alongside them on all fours to draw less attention to himself. His sense of smell was not nearly as good as Pinky's, but he could estimate Pinky's general direction.

Once he got to the sink, he surmised that Pinky must be in one of the cages on the other side. About to slink along the basin, he froze as he heard shifting behind him.

"Brain?" It wasn't the voice he hoped to hear. Chills ran up his spine as he recognized the timbre and tone.

Slowly, the little white mouse turned around to face the cage directly behind him. Pressed up against the bars stood an oh-so-familiar, honey colored hamster. "Snowball…"

"Oh, Brain it is you." The hamster sounded relieved, quite the contrast to the cruel tone Brain recalled being subjected to not so long ago. "I almost didn't want to believe it."

Brain bristled, half out of fear and half out of anger. "What do you want, Snowball?"

"Now, is that anyway to speak to an old friend?" Snowball actually had the audacity to appear hurt.

The white mouse frowned, folding his arms across his chest and trying to ignore the sharp stab of regret and betrayal. "You tell me."

"If you're referring to our last encounter, I apologize for my outburst." Snowball placed a paw to his chest, though his ears drooped when he saw Brain remain on his guard. "I'm sorry, Brain, I was upset. Hurt, scared, angry, you're no stranger to these emotions. You understand, don't you?"

While he could understand giving into an emotional outburst on a logical level, it didn't make him feel any better about it. "Snowball, what do you want?"

"How did you escape?" He demanded in one quick, breath.

Brain's eye twitched. So that's all it was. He should've known better than to place misguided hope on someone who'd betrayed him once before. Even if it was driven by emotional insecurity, that was no excuse. Even he, who had a particularly short temper, would never say something to intentionally hurt Pinky.

Right, Pinky.

"Goodbye, Snowball." Brain turned on his heel and started walking away.

"Wait, Brain! Don't go! Please! I could be a valuable asset to you!" The hamster pleaded, stopping Brain effectively in his tracks. "Think of all we could accomplish! You and me! Best of friends! We're the only successful subjects of Project B.R.A.I.N.!"

Brain glanced at him over his shoulder. "Speaking of best friend, thanks for reminding me, I need to find mine. If you'll excuse me."

"What? You mean that dopey eyed fool they brought it earlier?" Snowball sounded scandalized. "Why would you even associate yourself with him? Let alone be his friend."

"I don't need to tell you why. All I have to say is that he's been a better friend to me than you've been as of late." Brain growled. "And right now he needs me, and I can't leave him here by himself."

Snowball rolled his eyes. "Please, Brain, of course he needs you. He's an idiot. I could tell from the moment he was tossed in here, with all those gibberish words of nonsense. Idiots need intelligent creatures such as ourselves to guide them through life. But really, Brain, do you need him?"

Would he be here if he didn't? "I do."

"Brain… and I thought you were supposed to be smart."

"I am." Brain nodded firmly, his resolve grounded. "I know what's important."

"Do you really think you could ever reach your full potential in his company?" Snowball barked out as Brain continued on his way. "He'll slow you down! You'll never accomplish your goals with him around! You'll be struggling forever, not like you would be if you sided with me, Brain! Brain! Come back!"

The little mouse blocked out the hateful words of the hamster, focusing instead on the remaining cages before him. He vaguely heard the complaints of other rodents, telling Snowball to shut up and quit his whining, as he wiped at his eyes. This was getting ridiculous. Once he and Pinky got out of here, he'd make sure not to get emotional for another month.

Pinky's scent assaulted his senses suddenly. Excitement spurred him on to the cage in the corner, half concealed by shadow. Brain grasped the bars and peered inside. His heart sank when at first he didn't see anything, but then he heard it more than saw. Quiet, despondent sighs from the far side of the cage.

Curled up in a tiny ball, his back to the rest of the lab, sat Pinky. Brain felt the tension melt out of him and his tail swished back and forth slightly before he caught himself, shaking away the giddy feeling. How childish.

"Pinky." He said gently, watching the ears of his friend twitch at the sound of his voice.

With a long sniffle, Pinky turned around to stare in awe. "Brain? Are you really there?"

"I'm here, Pinky." Brain couldn't fight back the grin as Pinky leapt up and squealed in delight.

"NARF! Oh, Brain!" In no time at all, the little blue eyed mouse was gripping Brain's hands through the cage. "I was so scared, Brain! I didn't know where I was! And then it got dark! And I missed you!"

Pinky's enthusiasm nearly overwhelmed him, but he persevered, gripping the paws that held his right back. "It's okay, Pinky, I'm going to get you out of here. It's okay."

"Zounds, Brain… but how are you going to open the cage? It's locked." Pinky pointed at the obvious.

Brain arched an eyebrow. "How do you think I got out?"

"Ummm… poit. Little wing-ed fairies?" Pinky suggested.

Slapping a paw to his forehead, he couldn't help but be relieved by the inanity. "No, Pinky. This."

He pulled out the paperclip key, preening a bit at Pinky's 'ooh's and 'ahh's. He molded it to the shape of the lock, and in an instant had the door popped open. Not even a second after opening it, Brain was tackled by wiggling, giggling ball of fur. He squeaked in surprise, turning red at the embarrassing noise, but couldn't help it as Pinky nuzzled him affectionately. Seeing no other way around it, Brain embraced him right back as the two little mice rolled across the countertop.

"Braaaaiin…!" Pinky sobbed, startling the smaller mouse since the tears came out of nowhere. "I don't want to be separated ever ever ever again!"

"Shhh, Pinky." Brain tried to quiet him, rubbing his back as he cringed. Tears soaked the fur of his shoulder. "I promise, if it's in my power, we won't be. Okay?"

Pinky hiccupped, pulling back and Brain helped him wipe away the errant tears. "Mmm… 'kay."

The two mice struggled to get to their feet without letting the other go. Brain brushed them both off, as if they'd gotten dusty in their roll around on the counter. "Come on, Pinky, let's get back to the lab." Pinky nodded, moving to follow Brain before suddenly freezing. The genius mouse stared at his friend in concern, observing the way his fur stood on end. "Pinky? What's wrong?"

Blue eyes widened and his pupils became the size of pin pricks as he whispered: "Cat."

* * *

><p>The Brain's First Escape!<p>

Awwwwww~ they grow up so fast xD

Oh, they're reunited!  
>But danger lurks somewhere in Acme Labs...<p>

Too bad they lost their night vision when they were gene spliced, poor little guys!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The door was wide open. Brain had dislodged it just enough to allow a cat to slink through.

The two mice clung tightly to each other as their eyes darted about wildly for any signs of whiskers or a glimmer of night vision. Pinky whimpered piteously and Brain very much felt like doing the same. He could smell it now and it inspired feelings of terror previously unknown to him. He thought storms were scary, he'd take a hundred storms before having to go through this again.

Brain patted Pinky's back to give him some reassurance, but it only sent him back into the cage. "Quick, Brain! It can't get us in here!" He'd gone straight to the wheel.

"No, Pinky." Brain stepped inside the cage, staying close to the opening. "We can't hide in here or we'll never get out."

"But Brain!" Pinky scurried over to him and tugged on his arm repetitively. "The cat!"

Brain dislodged Pinky from his arm. "We'll just have to outsmart it. That shouldn't be too difficult… we've been genetically enhanced. This is just some common house cat trained to keep… outside mice and rats from contaminating the experiments… it'll be easy."

Pinky's lip quivered. "I've never seen a cat before, Brain. What if it's really scary?"

"Trust me, Pinky, if you stay close to me, you won't even have to look at the cat." Or so he hoped. Inside Brain trembled at the thought of having to face one of their top predators.

The two mice poked their heads out of the cage, Brain looked right while Pinky looked left. Slowly and warily, Brain tip-toed out of the cage and along the length of the counter with Pinky close behind. None of the other lab animals made a sound. The scent of cat thick in the air. Even those in their cages did not feel safe.

Suddenly, Brain jumped out of his skin as he felt something brush against his tail. "Pinky!" He hissed, his heart thundering like a stampede. "Don't do that!"

Pinky smiled sheepishly, Brain's tail gripped tightly in both of Pinky's paws. "Sorry, Brain."

Allowing his companion to continue to hold on, the duo slinked behind books and shelves and gadgets. The Brain made sure to stay as close to the wall as possible, best to have as little vulnerable spots as possible. The air tingled with a sensation akin to electricity, it made their fur rise and their noses twitch.

The pair inched around the corner of a shelf. Brain couldn't help but grin with satisfaction at the sight that met them. The door was within their reach! They only had to scuttle across the floor and out, practically home free. Unfortunately, the floor was a very open place to be. No cover to shield them from the night vision of a predatory feline.

Brain turned to Pinky, who still held on to his tail as he gazed at Brain with such trust. It almost made him choke. Clearing his throat, he brought Pinky's face close to his so he didn't have to raise his voice.

"Pinky, listen to me. We're going to run for the door, okay? Do you see it?" He turned Pinky's entire head so it faced the door and waited for the nod. "Good. Now, on three, we run. Don't stop, no matter what. Just keep running."

"Right, Brain. Just one question."

"What?"

"How many after one is three?"

Brain gave Pinky's nose a reprimanding tug, not enough to hurt, but just enough to let him know he was not pleased. "Just follow me."

The sprint started off with no foreseeable problems. He was on all fours, primitive but effective, and could hear the light panting of his friend behind him. His heart thumping in his chest, his paws slick with sweat, but he was getting closer, they were so close!

A large wall of fur fell from above them, hissing and flexing her claws as she stood before the door. She kicked out her hind leg and closed the door. Brain skidded to a stop, changing direction immediately. Her mouth full of sharp teeth had been open and waiting for the little mice to slide right inside. The Brain could hear her hiss angrily, which led him to believe Pinky was still following him. Chancing a backwards glance, his eyes met the wide blue ones of his companion before being drawn to the leaping feline.

"Split up, Pinky!" He hollered, diving towards the left.

"Whu? NAARF!" The little mouse squealed as the cat brushed his tail on her landing, but it motivated him to scamper off to the right.

The last thing he wanted was to be separated from his friend again, but the logical part of his brain encouraged and reassured him that they'd be more difficult to catch this way. It was the safest course of action.

Brain climbed up the counter, hoping to find a vantage point where he could survey the lab and perhaps locate Pinky. With a lot of heaving and grappling, he managed to hoist himself up onto relatively high shelf. Crouching low, he peered out across the lab, spotting the cat almost immediately. Her belly pressed to the floor as she swiped one paw out in front of her, spitting and hissing at an enclosed corner. His blood ran cold, she'd cornered Pinky! In her frustration, she slammed into the file cabinets Pinky must've wedged himself between, the force allowing her to squeeze through a little more. If she kept it up, he realized, she could easily create enough space to snatch up Pinky in her claws.

Hastily searching the shelf he was on, Brain located a glass jar. He pushed it over the edge, watching the cat as it shattered. Her head lifted as she turned in the direction of the noise. Her eyes glinted in the darkness, focused right on his shelf. Her tail flicked and Brain swallowed. There was movement behind the feline, a flash of white, but he had no time to focus as the cat sprung to the counter to the shelf. Brain jumped to another level of the shelf, one below him, as the cat dove for where he'd last been.

The shelf wobbled dangerously, then tipped forward. Brain felt as though the floor was approaching awfully slowly despite their fall.

The horrific crash startled Pinky out of his new hiding spot, he'd seen The Brain on the tall shelf, but now it was on the floor and not very tall at all. "Brain?" Pinky called out, he didn't see that cat anymore, so he chanced wandering over to the shelf.

A lot of objects had been flung about, and that's where he found his friend, nearly crushed beneath several large bookends and glass and wood. The little mouse gasped, avoiding any of the sharp pieces and made his way to where Brain was groaning. They both froze when they heard some shifting over to the side, but the cat didn't make an appearance, so Pinky continued to hop over.

"Brain, are you alright?" He asked, sniffing around at the things that piled up on him. "That was a big fall!"

Brain grunted as he squirmed about, but then released a high-pitched wail that scared Pinky right out of his skin. "Oww…" Brain's voice cracked as he squeezed his eyes shut.

"What hurts, Brain? What can I do?" Pinky buzzed about him, desperate to be useful to his friend.

Brain whimpered, too far gone from the pain to even care how pathetic it sounded. "My tail…"

With a glance towards Brain's lower half, which was covered with knick knacks, Pinky started nudging the weight off him until the smaller mouse could crawl out. The pair gazed down at his tail, once straight and smooth was now broken and jagged. Unable to lament the pain in his tail properly, for the cat started shifting again, the little mice bolted for a new, more effective hiding place.

Curled up, under the fridge, Pinky hesitantly touched Brain's crooked tail. "Egad, Brain… your tail's all ziggy-zaggy."

Before Pinky could even get a good feel, Brain moved it out of the way and snapped: "Don't touch it!"

"But, Brain." Pinky tilted his head, concern shining in those big blue eyes. "You need to take care of your owie."

Brain swallowed thickly, knowing Pinky was right, and hesitantly moved beside his eccentric friend. "Be gentle, Pinky."

"Of course, Brain! I don't want to make you hurt worse!" Pinky declared, indignant with his paws on his hips.

He cupped the damaged tail so lightly, Brain hardly felt it save for the twinges as the appendage moved. Brain bit down hard on his lower lip and squeezed his eyes shut, clenching his fists as Pinky's fingers ran up from the base of the tail to the tip. Then the touch was gone. By the time Brain opened his eyes, Pinky was already gone. His heart jumped. The cat could've recovered by now! What was that idiot thinking?

Before his panic could increase, Pinky popped his head back under the fridge and with him came a roll of bandages. Brain raised a brow, watching as Pinky fiddled with the tape, getting most of it wrapped around his ears and paws before he finally secured it around Brain's tail. It didn't really make it feel any better, but he did appreciate the effort his friend went to.

Brain sighed as Pinky pet his tail soothingly, stiffening when he felt something brush against it. Whipping his head around, he stared wide-eyed at Pinky as his assumption was confirmed. His friend gently pressed his lips to the injured tail, then looked up at beamed at him, his own tail swishing behind him with enthusiasm.

"Pinky, what…?" Brain blinked at the innocent act, completely befuddled by it.

"I kissed it better, Brain!" Pinky remained smiling, completely oblivious to his friend's wonderment. "It's what you do when you get owies. It makes it all go away! Narf!" He giggled, carefully setting his tail back down before clasping his paws together and turning his eager eyes to his friend. "Does it feel better now, Brain?"

It didn't really. His tail still throbbed and a simple bandage wouldn't help it set properly, so it would most likely heal in this crooked position… yet The Brain nodded, reaching out and patting Pinky's head. "Yes. Thank you, Pinky."

Pinky went to throw his arms around him, but at Brain's withering look he stopped himself. Grinning sheepishly, he settled for cuddling up next to him instead which Brain allowed. They could hear the cat scratching about outside, but they were far enough under the fridge that her claws could not reach them. It was dusty, and less than ideal, but it would do for now. When better rested, Brain would concoct a plan to get them out of there and back to the cage.

"Precious! What's gotten into you?"

Brain startled awake, feeling Pinky jolt beside him moments later. They heard the disgruntled mewling of the cat, could also see her eye from the crack between the fridge and the floor until she was scooped up and a pair of shoes took her place. Brain deduced morning had come; perfect. Time to implement his scheme, surely they wouldn't have that cat out and about while letting the other rodents loose. They could easily slip away unnoticed.

"Pinky, now's our chance." Brain whispered, moving to stand, wincing at the effort. His tail still ached, it would make running difficult. "We're going to hide under the table closest to the door. The humans come in and out of them so often, there will be plenty of chances for us to slip out when they do. We'll be back to the cage before you can say infallible." He paused for a moment. "Actually, that gives us a lifetime. Scratch that."

"Scratch what?" Pinky tilted his head.

Brain slapped a paw to his face. "Never mind, Pinky. Just follow."

"But Brain, last time we tried to run you got hurt!" Pinky ran in front of him, blocking the exit with an expression of concern on his features. "I don't want you to get hurt again!"

Ears wilting as he scowled at his companion, he tried to ignore how nice it felt to be the cause of someone's concern. "Pinky, I'll be fine."

"How do you know?"

He didn't know, but they'd never get out from under this fridge if he didn't say something to calm him down. "I am The Brain, I'm never wrong."

It was egotistical, yes, but it accomplished what he set out to do. Pinky relaxed and finally let Brain pass so he could examine what was going on out in the lab. The human who had picked up the cat, apparently dubbed "Precious", was now examined the fallen shelf.

"Bad kitty!"

Brain rolled his eyes, then eyed the distance between them and the door. It was a stretch, but they could make it, especially since the cat was being scolded and would not be able to catch them should they be spotted. On all fours he ran out, wincing as his tail pained him. Pinky did as he was told, following right behind Brain, and the pair almost reached the door when-

"How did you two get out?" A foot blocked their path, and suddenly they were being raised up by another one of the scientists. "Precious! No playing with the lab animals! You know that!"

Cupped in the same palm, Pinky latched onto Brain, nuzzling him gently in apology when he hastily squished his crooked tail between them. It didn't stop Brain from glaring at him though. Nonetheless, he grabbed onto Pinky in return. These humans weren't going to take him away again, not while he had something to say about it.

"You know which cage these mice belong in?" The human carrying them asked around, but no one could seem to recall. They had so many mice after all, left over from the botched Project B.R.A.I.N. experiment, no one could really tell them apart.

"Here's an empty cage, just stick them in here. We can use them for behavioral testing."

So the two mice were placed in the cage Pinky had been in the night before. Brain looked about, he hadn't really taken in the appearance of the cage the night before, too concerned with springing Pinky from his prison, but now he noted how spacious it was for two little mice such as themselves. It was also near a window, as well as a globe, stacks of books, office supplies and some other scientific devices. The bars were a greenish color, and there was a wheel and some bedding and water bottle, all the basics for a cage.

When the door clicked shut, he supposed they'd have to wait until night once more…

Wait.

Did they even have to leave?

The Brain looked over at his companion, his friend, his family. The little mouse was licking himself, trying to remove the scent of human hands, no doubt. Blue eyes glanced up when he finally realized Brain was staring, they lit up with his smile. Brain smiled back, rolling his eyes when such a simple response sent Pinky into a fit of narf-giggles.

He had all that he needed right here, didn't he?

"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?" Brain asked, brushing off his fur as he inspected the cage more thoroughly.

Pinky popped up beside him. "I think so, Brain! But I like crackers more than bacon."

Brain blinked. "No, Pinky… that's not it at all."

"Oh." Pinky looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully, then shrugged. "What's 'pondering'?"

"Thinking." Brain clarified.

With a snort, Pinky spun in a circle. "Well, I don't do much of that, Brain! Narf!"

"Indeed." Brain sighed, grabbing hold of Pinky's tail to stop the spinning. "No, I was pondering that we don't really have to leave this cage. I mean, what's waiting for us back in that other room except for a cramped cage and ignorant simpletons?"

"My paper clip!" Pinky tugged on Brain's arm. "And my push pin! And the lovely drawing you gave me!"

Brain had to stare at his friend as he struggled to comprehend him once again. "Alright, yes, besides that."

"Ummm… poit." Pinky stuck his tongue out as he tried to think. "I dunno, Brain."

"Exactly, Pinky. There isn't anything save for some of our personal items. Why, we'd be much better off in our own cage. We can be the masters of our own lifestyle!" Brain gestured grandly, the cage all theirs for the taking. "We can fetch our belongings at some point, I promise, Pinky." The little mouse looked excited about that. "Especially since it doesn't seem that 'Precious' will be prowling around any time soon." Both mice watched as the bitter cat was placed in a carrier to be taken out of the lab, some of the assistants still cleaning up the mess from last night. "She won't be bothering us, Pinky."

"I hope she has a nice vacation." Pinky chirped, his tail wagging as he poked his head through the bars. "Zort!"

Brain hummed in response, satisfied that Pinky seemed to take to the idea of having their very own cage. He strolled away from the bars of the cage, going to see how close the books were to him and if he could possibly open one for some reading. Suddenly, he was tumbling forward, his tail releasing a jab of pain as he rolled. Landing on his stomach, he sighed as he registered Pinky's familiar weight on top of him.

"Pinky…"

"Let's play, Brain!" He laughed, pawing at Brain's ear so that it twitched. "No one's here to bother us, so we can play all day long, can't we? None of those meanie-mean mice can do anything about it! Narf!"

It was true, they could play. But he really wanted to read.

"Puh-leeeeeeez, Brain?" Pinky was now nosing his ear in a pitiful way, though he could still feel the shifting of that tail of his.

"I don't think so, Pinky. Not right now." Brain replied, grinning when he felt Pinky hop off him with a sad little sigh. He waited until Pinky had turned around, ears drooped and tail sagging, then he pounced. "Got ya! You should know better than to fall for that, Pinky!"

"Egad, Brain!" And the pair of mice ran about the cage, playing as they wished.

Just the two of them. And neither would have it any other way.

* * *

><p>The final chapter!<p>

Egad, it's so sad. Oh that rhymes!  
>Well, there's still technically the epilogue... but that's just for fun and it will be decently short.<br>It's mostly to introduce Brain's plans for world domination, but it still goes along with all of this.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this story as much as I liked writing it! It's my baby and I'll miss it, but we gotta let them go some time, right? xD Plus, I've got so many other babies that need attention now lol. Best to keep on trucking!


End file.
